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Thyra Ragnarsdottir
Thyra Ragnarsdottir (died 899) was the daughter of Earl Ragnar the Fearless and the sister of Earl Ragnar Ragnarsson. For ten years after her father's murder in 871, she was imprisoned at Dunholm by her father's killer Kjartan and was raped and abused, but, after she regained her freedom in 881, she fell in love with the Catholic priest Beocca and converted to Christianity. In 899, she was burned to death in a xenophobic attack by Tidman, an Anglo-Saxon thug and acquaintance of Aethelwold Aetheling. Biography Early life Thyra Ragnarsdottir was the daughter of Earl Ragnar the Fearless and the sister of Ragnar Ragnarsson, and the family later adopted their servant Uhtred of Bebbanburg as their son. Uhtred, Thyra, and the servant girl Brida were playmates during their youths in the Danish-settled town of Leeds in England, and Uhtred saved Thyra from the shipmaster Kjartan's son Sven Kjartansson, who stripped her half-naked in the woods and attempted to rape her before being attacked by Uhtred. By 871, Thyra was betrothed to marry a man who lived across a field from her family, but the wedding party was attacked by Kjartan, Sven, and their warband, who burned down the Great Hall with most of the guests (including Thyra's mother and her grandfather Ravn) inside, and killed Ragnar and many others outside of the hall. Uhtred and Young Ragnar (who was away campaigning in Ireland) believed Thyra to have died in the fire, but she was instead taken as a sex slave by Kjartan, Sven, and their men, who brought her to Kjartan's new stronghold of Dunholm and abused her. She lived in a prison cell with several hounds, and her mental state deteriorated, while she also forgot about her family, who were unaware that she was still alive. New life In 880, Thyra's brothers attacked Dunholm, and Thyra had her hounds savagely kill Sven, while Ragnar killed Kjartan. Thyra initially claimed that her brothers were no better than the men who had whored her, but Father Beocca helped to restore her faith in her family, and they soon fell in love. In 884, Beocca proposed to Thyra, and she accepted. They settled in Winchester, and Thyra converted to her husband's faith of Christianity (although she had occasional flirtations with paganism), living happily with him. However, in 899, she was harassed by several Anglo-Saxons who grew fearful and resentful of the Danes as Hastein and Cnut Longsword's army advanced on Winchester, and Aethelwold Aetheling's henchman Tidman once called her a "Dane whore", leading to Beocca beating him. Death Thyra later attended the funeral of King Alfred the Great in October 899, but Tidman harassed her by bumping into her from behind and saying that she shouldn't be there. Thyra left and decided to walk home, but Tidman followed her, throwing rocks at her. When she arrived at her home, she hid under the floorboards, and Tidman entered the home in search of her. He heard her cough from under the boards, so he set several rags on fire and scattered them across the floor, hoping to burn her. When he leaned towards the board to stare into Thyra's eyes and taunt her, she stabbed him through a crack in the boards, killing him. However, his heavy body weighed down on the boards, and Thyra was unable to escape from her hiding hole as the fire engulfed the house. She repeatedly called for Beocca, but Beocca was presiding over the funeral. Rather than die of smoke inhalation, Thyra stabbed herself in the chest with a knife, hoping to go to Valhalla after her death. Finan later helped Beocca find Thyra's body and give her a proper burial. Category:899 deaths Category:Danish Category:Pagans Category:Vikings Category:West Saxons Category:Catholics Category:Converts to Catholicism from paganism Category:Killed